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Major ad firm Outfront Media censors “free Ahed Tamimi” billboard

Outfront Media’s staff created this design for a billboard calling for the release of Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi, but it was rejected by corporate executives who claimed it was an “attack ad.”

A major US ad firm is refusing to put up a billboard calling for the release of Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian girl who is in indefinite military custody for challenging Israeli occupation forces on her family’s property.

Ahed, 16, was detained in a night raid in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh a month ago, after video circulated showing her and a cousin slapping and shoving two heavily armed Israeli soldiers following an incident in which a soldier had shot in the head and seriously injured their 15-year-old cousin.

“Nothing that Ahed Tamimi has done can justify the continuing detention of a 16-year-old girl,” Amnesty International stated last week. “The Israeli authorities must release her without delay.”

Billboard design

Ahed’s persecution by Israel has rallied supporters of Palestinian rights all over the world, and a businessperson in Chicago’s western suburbs wanted to help draw attention to her case with a billboard at a busy intersection.

He contacted the ad firm Outfront Media, one of the largest in the country, that used to be known as CBS Outdoor.

The staff in the firm’s Chicago office were very helpful, according to the businessperson who did not want to be named due to concern about harassment his family could face for his speaking out about Palestinian rights.

They negotiated a price: $5,000 plus a $350 design fee to place a large ad at the intersection of Naper Boulevard and Ogden Avenue in the town of Naperville.

The design staff helped come up with an ad that would be printed on a huge vinyl sheet and displayed to an estimated 139,000 passing drivers during the ad’s four-week run.

Outfront’s staff said the ad might even stay up longer for free if no one else bought the billboard right away.

But the trouble began after the Chicago office submitted the design for approval to headquarters in New York: the ad was immediately rejected. So Outfront’s designers in Chicago created a second, toned-down version, which the client approved – the company’s mock-up can be seen above.

However that design was also overruled by the New York office.

“Attack ad”

In a 19 January email seen by The Electronic Intifada, Michael Gapastione, an account executive in Outfront Media’s Chicago office, wrote the businessperson telling him that the New York office “answered me back with second ad and said would NOT be approved.”

“I asked for clarification. Response was that this was an attack ad and won’t be approved,” Gapastione added. “I even asked if we just put FREE AHED with picture and she said NO.”

A request for comment has been sent to Outfront Media.

The businessperson told The Electronic Intifada that initially he had been informed by the Chicago office that Outfront accepts “political ads,” but he added that “the corporate office in New York rejected everything.”

In fact, Outfront Media actively seeks to capture as much as it can of the billions of dollars spent on political advertising in the US.

Defending anti-Trump billboard

In September, the company came under pressure to remove a billboard near the San Francisco Bay Bridge that called to “Impeach Trump” and showed a scowling image of the president.

The political group that paid for the ad said it was initially told by Outfront Media that the ad would come down due to “multiple complaints,” and slammed the company for “censorship.”

But Outfront Media told reporters this had been a “miscommunication” and the company confirmed that the ad would stay up for its scheduled run.

In the end, despite whatever pressure it faced, the firm was prepared to allow Trump critics to have their say.

But in Outfront Media’s view, supporting children’s rights now qualifies as an unacceptable “attack ad” – if those children are Palestinian.

Calling on Israel to respect their rights is beyond the pale for the multibillion dollar corporation – even though 20 members of Congress are concerned enough by Israel’s military detention, abuse and torture of Palestinian children that they are backing a bill to curtail it.

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Comments

Talk about blatant censorship. Is one to take it that freedom for Ahed Tahimi is politically incorrect.

Face it, upper management of "Tape Their Mouths Shut Media" have a similar view of Arabs that Winston Churchill had and the rest of the criminal imperialists have, "a backward people who only eat camel dung."

Thank you for exposing censorship in the good ole’ USA. Some folks believe this does not happen. Well, you found irrevocable proof and evidence that it does happen bluntly and blatantly right under our noses and eyes. Sad state of affairs in the home of the free and brave!

I just tried contacting Outfront. Their "general mailbox" where comments are normally received appears to have been disabled. The same is true of their Media and Press site. No problem getting through as an investor, though. Here's an email address that may still function-info@outfrontmedia.com
Let's try to generate messages to this company.

"Your company has rejected a legitimate, legal design for a billboard display in Chicago. The message of this display is a simple one, calling for the release of a Palestinian child currently held under Israeli military detention. She has been seized and transported across international lines by an occupying power- in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Her alleged crime is to have slapped a heavily armed soldier in an effort to remove him from her family home. She is facing years in prison upon conviction, and the military court which will try her has a conviction rate of 99.7%. Yet your company has decided to reject an advertisement which merely demands freedom for this girl. No one is defamed by its message. No act of violence is enjoined. Your company's rejection of this advertisement is blatantly discriminatory. Reverse this decision now. The rights of Palestinian children, as well as those enshrined in the First Amendment, are not negotiable."

Do what you can. Let these people know what you think of their act of censorship.

Great letter to Outfront Media, Tom. Should make them feel totally shame-faced right now. All together we can get them to allow the billboard to go up.
Arifa (not Arufa, as in typo in my previous post)

I just wrote an email to Outfront Media questioning their censorship of this billboard. I asked for a response. If they get lots of emails, perhaps they will think twice about their stance on this issue.

Most of the Christian world was shamefully silent during the Jewish Holocaust in Europe. Leaders were muffled by the might of the Nazis and grass root prejudice. Only a few brave people dared act, or speak out.
The Jewish World appreciated, extolled, and recognized the brave few who were not silent and exposed themselves to dangerous punishments and consequences.
The famous "Diary of Ann Frank" has saturated the world in all its languages for decades and published in books, the media, museums, and theaters to tell the tragic story of a brave young Jewish girl. And we have heard innumerable times about the world's commitment to, "Never Again", to the satisfaction of our collective ears and eyes.
Yet, some of these same people, today, are afraid to speak out against Israel's occupation and Israel's incarceration of hundreds of Palestinian children, many of whom have been tortured, or permanently maimed, and abused, both physically and mentally. One wonders where they have learned all those torturous inhumane methods?
I call on all those who still believe in something called, FREEDOM, justice, and human dignity to reject OUTFRONT MEDIA's cowardly censorship.
Ask yourself: What is scaring those behind Outfront Media from the call of freeing a courageous 16-year old Palestinian girl who rejects tyrannical Israeli occupation and apartheid?

If We cant find a Billboard Company to do it, Let's Find the Side of a Building on Eisenhower Expy. Two years ago, I had painted on the front of my House, #FreePalestine #BDS #EndTheOccupation Boycott the Apartheid Terrorist State of Israel when the Zionists forced the I294 expy sign down....It Continues to Drive the OP &RF Zionists Crazy! hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh